DIY Audio Projects Forum

Hi All,

I have been looking into building a 7.1 home audio system since my last set got damaged in a house move. Rather than buy a entire new system I figured I would try my hand at building one. I have built 5 subwoofer enclosures before for both the car and the living room. Both worked well and the construction was easy enough. However as everyone here is aware, building a single speaker enclosure without the need to worry about crossovers (all my other builds have used stand alone subwoofer amps) or calculating the size of the enclosure etc is easy. My other builds were all for subwoofers that stated the requied air volume or size,port size etc so I didnt have to work much out for myself other than how I wanted it to look.

Anyway, enough about the past. Now I want to design a set of speakers as the focal, main front speakers. The others will be simple in terms of a mid sized woofer with a tweeter. However the main front speakers I want to be larger and more impressive. This brings me to the issue. I want 2 x low woofers, 1 x mid woofer and a nice tweeter to finish it off. Can i buy a crossover that will do what is needed here. My local electronics store has them. Plenty on ebay too. They are all 3-way though and what i have just described has more than 3 speakers in each cabinet. How do I go about getting a crossover that will work for this situation? Can I just connect the two lows to the same low connector on the crossover or will this alter the operation of the crossover?

If I need to design a crossover for this specific system - where do I start. I'm not an electronics wiz.

Also, what can I use to get the size correct relative the speakers. Is there software that I can use that will help?

Thanks for any help you can provide

Hi David, welcome to the forum.

Designing a speaker that will sound well is quite complicated, particularity the crossover. For a first speaker project that is quite ambitious. My suggestion would be that you find an already proven speaker design. There are many available on the web in many sizes and costs. Let us know what you are looking for and we can suggest some projects.

Cheers

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[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Hi, Also welcome to the forum. I agree with Gio, this is a rather ambitious project. My thought is that since you have built subs, why not make high quality 2 ways for the fronts and use subs? It would seem to be a natural thing with your past experience. There are numerous 2 way designs that can get down to the 40-50HZ range and small powered subs could take over below that if needed. As long as at least one really good sub was the .1 of the system you might find that you won't need the full range response in the fronts.

Good listening
Bruce

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Some of my DIY Tube Amplifier Projects:

• PoddWatt: 5751 / EL84 Push-Pull DIY Tube Amplifier Project
• OddBlocks: KT88 Push-Pull DIY Tube Amplifiers (Mono Blocks)
• ForeWatt: ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) DIY Tube Preamplifier Project
• GrooveWatt: Tube (Valve) RIAA Phono Preamplifier Project

Thanks for the info chaps. I would like to build my own speaker system still. So I guess that as you suggested the best way to go would be to start with a kit. I'm from the uk though. As far as I can tell, no kits are available over here. Even decent woofers are hard to come by. Seems like everything I look for shows up from the US. I'll have to have a deeper look. I may buy a ready made system and make my own style of cabs to house the drivers and the crossovers that come with it. I'll post back with what I can come up with...

It doesn't have to be a kit. There are many well documented projects on the web that you can follow. You should be able to find speaker parts in the EU.

Cheers

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[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]